Our municipal Parks and Recreation Department is building a new fleet of Hobie Bravo's to replace their aging and lacklusted SunFish fleet. They currently have two and are preparing to buy two more.

The problem they are having is that the sails on the first two barely lasted a year and a half. The boats are left rigged on a small beach (freshwater lake) and even furled the sails take a beating from the sun. They quickly dry rot and under use have split and torn along the leech area.

My suggestion to them has been to try having a strip of sacrificial or protective sunbrella (or similar) sewn or adhereed along the leech for a distance of about 10 to 12 inches. When furled this would take the brunt of the sun's damaging rays.

Does anyone have any suggestions for materials or methods to do something like this? It would help them if they can do it in house instead of having to ship the sails off somewhere.